A leading Canadian food sector executive has told Pig World that the EU will not be top of his country’s pork export list even when the recently “concluded” free trade agreement between Canada and the EU becomes a business reality.
“China and South-east Asia are the best markets for Canadian pork going forward, not the EU,” said the Canadian director of SIAL, Xavier Poncin (pictured), speaking in Paris yesterday at the opening of the French version of SIAL, the international food and beverage event which draws 150,000 trade visitors to the French capital each autumn.
“I realise it’s a highly sensitive topic but I don’t see Canadian producers posing a threat to the EU pork industry, even though increasing sales into China would mean our farmers accepting a lower price, than if selling to the EU, in return for the big volumes that the Chinese market offers.”
Mr Poncin also said he believed it would take somewhere between two and four years to convert the current trade “agreement” into a business-ready process.
“Beef is actually more of a challenge to EU producers than pork,” he added.